CREATE Responds to Federal Announcement Over AECL

CHALK RIVER, ONTARIO--(Marketwire - June 30, 2011) - "CREATE recognizes that the sale of the commercial division of AECL signals the next step in the Government of Canada's plan for the re-structuring of AECL to ensure its long-term success and prosperity. Now, the focus can turn to the Chalk River Laboratories. The process of reviewing its structure, capabilities, and mission can begin," said Gord Tapp, spokesperson for CREATE, a grass-roots, volunteer committee that has proposed a vision for the future of AECL's Chalk River Laboratories (CRL).

"It is CREATE's vision that the Chalk River site should become a research laboratory with a national focus, for the benefit of all Canadians. The Chalk River site would become Canada's premier nuclear science and technology facility," adds Tapp.

It is expected that the former commercial division of AECL will continue to be a major client of CRL. CREATE envisions that the facilities, skills, and knowledge at Chalk River will serve as a foundation to enhance the laboratory's expanded role as a national resource for a broad spectrum of disciplines, allowing it to partner with Canadian and international scientists, entrepreneurs, and students from various private industries, multiple government agencies, and universities, and others who would benefit from having access to its unique tools and expertise.

"The focus at CRL needs to be directed outward across Canada in order to contribute to the public good by nurturing and performing high-priority research and innovation in materials science, medical isotopes, reactor safety and safeguards, energy alternatives, and waste management, all of which contribute to the environment, to clean energy, and to the safety, security, and health of all Canadians," adds Tapp.

For more information on Chalk River Employees Ad hoc TaskforcE for a national laboratory (CREATE) and its vision, visit www.futurecrl.ca.